Tolerating low visibility

[Sideband]

I am so accustomed to low/no vis diving that I get confused in clear water.
One thing I have noticed a lot is when you are navigating towards something, say a sunken boat, that you are constantly thinking you can just barely see it and that it is just out of site. Our brains like to play tricks.

 

[charlesml3]

I love diving in low vis

Wow. That's like talking about your favorite root canal as far as I'm concerned. I used to dive in limited vis but I just quit doing it. I'm diving to SEE things. Huge coral heads, schools of fish, giant barrel sponges.

That said I do "get it" when I hear people talking about the thrill of overcoming the challenges associated with it. That's real cool and all. It's just not for me.

I only get to dive a couple of times a year and I long ago decided I wasn't going to burn one of those trips in a cold, murky quarry. Looking at stupid rusty cars, signs and bicycles just doesn't seem exciting to me.

I was watching a video last weekend a guy around here made in some quarrey. He had HUGE amounts of gear on. Full suit with hood and gloves, double tanks with a manifold and two regs, pony bottle, and all this other crap hanging off his BC. He said the water was 85 at the top and 55 at the bottom. Everything in the video was a nice shade of brown. Brown water, brown bottom, brown silt all over everything. It was a five minute video and I was bored by the middle of it. Nothing personal, but, well, screw that.

My idea of diving is a shorty, single 80, warm, clear tropical water and 60 minutes at 60 feet. Zillions of fish, every color in the spectrum and a gentle current to carry you along the reef. I only carry the gear I absolutely need. I dive light. 10 pounds of weight. I just can't deal with all that other crap hanging off my BC. I converted my BC to Zeagle Octo-Z so I could eliminate a hose off my reg. I realize that diving is a wildly diverse sport and there are all kinds of flavors that work for all kinds of people. I'm not passing judgement here. Just talking about the stuff I really dig...

-Charles

 

[Kingpatzer]

I only get to dive a couple of times a year and I long ago decided I wasn't going to burn one of those trips in a cold, murky quarry. Looking at stupid rusty cars, signs and bicycles just doesn't seem exciting to me.

One of the reasons a lot of folks dive in low vis (and enjoy it) is because we too can only do a limited number of dive trips in a year . . . but we can dive every weekend at the local mud pit.

I'd rather dive in Mexico than in Minnesota every day too, but I live up in the great white north, so I gotta do what I gotta do

Hey look . . . I think I see an old stupid rusty sign!

 

[u4ia]

And there is plenty to see in low vis as has been said. Finding a 30 lb pike staring you in the face in 2' vis is exciting!

Yikes!:11: might wet my drysuit if that happened!!!

but other points well taken. I think its a great training opportunity to be able to dive in low visibility, and as you say, compels you to be more attentive to certain skills. balancing it out with also the pleasurable side is important too. I love diving and intend to dive as much as possible, and around here that means low visibility much of the time. as many have written, its just a fact of life in some/many places! some of us dont have the chance to stay out of the pool and wait for good vis cause that would equate to no diving at all!!!

 

[SNorman]

I'm pretty much used to diving in really crappy vis. I was snorkeling in a swimming pool with my 6 year old the other day and I was BLOWN AWAY by the fact that I could see alllllll the way to the other side of the pool!! I'm thinking "*** is this?"

 

[jbd]

As I was reading through this thread I thought back to some of the dives that I enjoyed the most or that I considered to be the most fun. They were in absolutely zero viz. The ambient light was gone. Each of these dives reminded me of being in Mammoth cave when they turn the lights off. Most of these dives were intentional although a few were quite unexpected. The intentional ones were in silt clouds I created intentionally while solo diving. The unexpected ones happened compliments of divers landing on me and shoving me into the mud while simultaneously stirring up all the silt on the bottom of the quarry.

The intentional dives were for learning if I could maintain depth, compass bearing and overall orientation while being completely devoid of any visual reference. I'm glad I did these kinds of dives before having to experience such conditions unexpectedly.

I also did one similar night dive with the light turned off for a while in a quarry. Due to the varying terrain I did bump into a lot of rocks Definitely diving by Braille

 

[MaconBubbles]

Low vis...fine. No vis...creepy. I only had to deal with that one time in a quarry while playing the unresponsive diver for the rescue class. I had to lay on the bottom by myself and couldn't see my gauges unless I pressed them against my mask, and even then it was difficult. The only fun thing about that was every once in awhile, a little fish would come right up to my face where I could see it. In the low vis lake where I dive, it's been fun learning to use my compass and learning to trust it as they say. The first time I tried, I was totally lost because I knew my compass couldn't be right and I went where I thought I should be going. After that, I started to try and trust my compass. It really does work. There's quite a bit to see after you learn your way around and you become familiar with a low vis lake. You learn where to go where the life is. When I first started going, I may have done an entire dive without seeing any life. Now I see all kinds of stuff. Would I rather be in clear, blue water? Of course, but I agree with those who say, "Any dive is better than no dive." Also, there's not much else to do but practice skills. When I go to the ocean, it's nothing but fun because everything is easier.

 

[WarrenZ]

Diving is also a mental activity and because of that low vis is hard to cope with the first time. I have done a dive in 100' deep dive with 100' vis water with two strong currents converging and consider a 0'-5' vis dive in 50' of water much more challenging. Just relax and calm yourself when the vis goes down.

Lets go diving in a mud puddle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[beester]

Here we dive a combination of quaries (mostly decent to good vis), ponts (bad to good vis depending on who was in before ), a big salt water estuary with tidal current (vis can go from I have to get my computer very close to my mask otherwise I can't see it to 15 and very rarely 20 feet of vis) and the north sea (same as the estuary).

So it can vary alot and that makes for interesting diving. To give an example last weekend we dove at a place at the estuary and vis was 1 to 2 feet... second dive was a place about 20 miles apart from place one on the same estuary and vis was 15 feet, so it can all vary which is nice.

I also believe that diving in low vis and current 'asks' more of you as a diver and in a sense makes you a better diver. The first dive of last weekend (with the low vis) was at a place known for his strong current (so you try to dive on the tides) with a very deep drop off (max depth 200 feet). So diving there with low vis (no visual reference to the bottom, wall),cold water, the tidal current is picking up and you know that you can be swept down to 200 feet will make diving in balmy water with 100 feet vis like disney land. In a sense this is also a danger. Good vis and warm water can of course also give you a false sense of security. People who would normaly not go deeper then 100 feet because of more difficult circumstances might try 160 in clear warm water.

 

[Puffer Fish]

As I was reading through this thread I thought back to some of the dives that I enjoyed the most or that I considered to be the most fun. They were in absolutely zero viz. The ambient light was gone. Each of these dives reminded me of being in Mammoth cave when they turn the lights off. Most of these dives were intentional although a few were quite unexpected. The intentional ones were in silt clouds I created intentionally while solo diving. The unexpected ones happened compliments of divers landing on me and shoving me into the mud while simultaneously stirring up all the silt on the bottom of the quarry.

The intentional dives were for learning if I could maintain depth, compass bearing and overall orientation while being completely devoid of any visual reference. I'm glad I did these kinds of dives before having to experience such conditions unexpectedly.

I also did one similar night dive with the light turned off for a while in a quarry. Due to the varying terrain I did bump into a lot of rocks Definitely diving by Braille

I can believe low... but no vis means you cannot see anything.. not your gauges, not your fingers.. nothing..I have to see that navigational skill to believe it. It is also black..

Low vis.. say 3 to 5 feet is ok, if you are diving rocks or something you can see... after a while, you don't notice it so much...floating on a safety stop in the middle of the ocean in the same vis always creeped me out.